The fabulous life of billionaire Michael Dell, who is once again fighting with Carl Icahn over the future of his company

Michael Dell is once again making headlines as he tries to take his company public again in an unusual and controversial way.

Instead of an IPO, Dell wants to buy the "tracking stock" of VMware for a combo of cash and Dell's stock. The tracking stock was created when Dell bought VMware's majority stakeholder EMC as part of that mega $67 billion deal. VMware is publicly traded and the tracking stock gave EMC investors extra value for their portion of VMware's equity, to encourage them to approve Dell's offer for EMC, which they did.

The tracking stock is also publicly traded, separate from VMware's common stock. Buying the tracking stock with Dell's stock means Dell would instantly become into a public company again, without a traditional IPO. 

But this deal initially earned the scorn of multiple hedge fund managers, who say Dell's offer for the tracking stock is too low.Dell has bowed to the pressure and offered investors more money ... a lot more money.

This deal has put Michael Dell back in the bullseye of his old nemesis Carl Icahn, who bought an 8% stake of the tracking stock and had threatened to sue if the offer isn't either dropped or raised. He wanted Dell to triple the offer, though Dell isn't raising his offer that by that much.

With an estimated net worth of $27.5 billion, Dell is one of the wealthiest people in the world. From his early career as one of the youngest CEOs of a Fortune 500 company until today, Dell is used to getting his way.

He was only 23 when his company had its IPO in 1988, and soon he was a billionaire.

Dell lives the extravagant life of a successful businessman as well, complete with all of the private planes, summer homes, and sweet rides you'd expect from a billionaire.

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Michael Dell was born on Feb. 23, 1965, in Houston, Texas. He was fascinated with gadgets from a young age — when he was 15, he bought one of the first Apple computers and disassembled it to see if he could put it back together.

Source: Academy of Achievement

When he was in high school, he got a job selling newspaper subscriptions. After figuring out how to target an untapped customer base, he made $18,000 in just one year.

Source: Academy of Achievement

Though he was really only interested in computers, Dell entered the University of Texas at Austin as a pre-med student in 1983. He spent his spare time upgrading PCs and selling them from his dorm room, making $180,000 in his first month of business. Though he never came back for his sophomore year of classes, he returned to his dorm for a photo opp in 1999.

Source: Entrepreneur

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